


Achilles and Patroclus

by thismachinekillsstraightmen



Category: Dream SMP- fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alexis | Quackity-centric, Dream is only mentioned, Drista is in here briefly, Duck Hybrid Alexis | Quackity, Gen, Piglin Hybrid Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Suicidal Thoughts, Swearing, please someone explain what it means i’m so confused but i’m scared to ask, what the fuck do people mean when they say no beta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:54:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29132136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thismachinekillsstraightmen/pseuds/thismachinekillsstraightmen
Summary: “As I was saying, it’s like Patroclus and Achilles.”Or: Quackity learns, mourns, and fights.TW: Swearing, Depictions of Violence, Brief Suicidal Thoughts, Character Deaths.
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 27
Kudos: 136





	Achilles and Patroclus

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this at midnight like all good fics are

Quackity found Technoblade pacing.

It wasn’t uncommon for him to do so. On the rare nights that the winds outside the caves of Pogtopia were stronger than the ones in it, Technoblade was known to pace around the place in replacement of his typical nightly walks. Quackity would slip out of his room and sit with him on those nights, although Technoblade seldom joined him in sitting. He would look up at the piglin hybrid, the comfortable silence of his cape lightly brushing the stone floor and the occasional grunt lulling him into the slumber that alluded Quackity most nights.

( The day after those nights, it also wasn’t uncommon for Quackity to be found sleeping leaning against the wall, Technoblade’s cape draped over him. )

That night, however, this comfortable silence was disrupted by the hiss of a Creeper.

Quackity’s eyes shot open, gasping when Technoblade hit at the Creeper with his bare hands. Rushing to a nearby chest, he grabbed an old stone axe before rushing to Technoblade’s aid, the Creeper gone in two hits.

“Did I really see what I saw right now?”

“Yeah, I don’t understand how a mob spawned in the cave either. We usually keep it well-lit-”

“Techno, you can’t just hit at a mob with your bare hands!”

“Why not? I would have been able to kill it.”

“Yeah, and it would have been able to kill you too! You’re not even wearing any armor!”

“It’s a Creeper, Quackity, not a Wither. I would’ve been fine.”

Letting out a light scoff, Quackity went to put the axe back.

“You know you don’t have to be so protective of me, Quackity.”

Caught off guard by Technoblade’s ability to read him, Quackity stammered out an explanation. “Fucking- Do you not realize how easy it is to die, Techno?” he asked, throwing the axe back into the chest before turning to face Technoblade again. “Really fucking easy, especially if you don’t have any armor or weapons. Of course I’m going to freak out when a mob attacks my unprotected friend.”

“What, you need to protect my dying honor against the mob?”

“I need to protect _you!_ When will you realize I want to protect you?”

Technoblade froze. It was only for a tiny slip of time, but Quackity still caught it. Their otherwise fluid conversations had been disrupted by Quackity throwing a rock of genuine emotion into it, his otherwise playful demeanor offset by him truly being caring.

“It’s a case of Patroclus and Achilles, isn’t it?”

“Technoblade, please, I never understand what your stories mean-“

“You use comedy to communicate, I use my otherwise grand metaphors. Are you still going to interrupt?”

Quackity considered leaving. This wasn’t a silence of trust and quiet coexistence, this was the silence of an important event foreboding on the two, the silence before a battle that disrupted the land.

He didn’t leave.

“I won’t interrupt.”

“As I was saying, it’s like Patroclus and Achilles.”

“I’ve heard about Achilles, not about the first guy,” Quackity said, moving past Technoblade to lean against the wall again, sliding down it into a sitting position.

“Patroclus was Achilles’ best friend. They were raised to be soldiers, and found the call to fight in the Trojan Battle. Achilles didn’t initially fight in the war, but Patroclus did. He was able to beat back some Trojan forces, but a Trojan warrior named Hector killed him.”

Technoblade stopped talking momentarily to join Quackity and sit, sliding down the wall in a similar position to sit next to him. Turning his head slightly to make eye contact with Quackity, he continued.

“Achilles was heartbroken when he found out Patroclus died. Mournful. And eventually, angry. His rage from his murder was Achilles’ main motivation to join the fight against the Trojans.”

“But then he died, right? Because he got shot in the ankle?”

“You’ve skipped a little further ahead, but yes.”

“That’s a little ridiculous, isn’t it? The fact that his weak spot was in his ankle, of all places?”

Technoblade calmly regarded Quackity. “I think his weak spot can be interpreted in a more metaphorical sense. Maybe his weak spot was actually the care he had for his best friend, his need to avenge him. Achilles did end up killing Hector for Patroclus, but put himself in battle, in the position that led to him dying too.”

Moving to get back up, Technoblade looked down at Quackity when he was standing again.

“Achilles was warned that he would lose his life if he fought Hector, you know. But he still did it.”

Technoblade left, the sound of his cape dragging across the floor replaced by the cave’s whistling winds. Shivering, Quackity wrapped his wings around him, mulling over Technoblade’s story.

He wondered which one of them was Patroclus, and the other Achilles.

•••

Quackity found Technoblade on the ground.

Dream’s seeming surrender to Wilbur had been a trap, and it had caught Technoblade in it.

( The image of Dream’s spear stabbing through Technoblade’s stomach would forever be engraved in Quackity’s mind. )

Everyone had screamed, and immediately jumped back into battle.

Well, almost everyone.

Quackity’s legs felt numb, but he still managed to push forward, kneeling beside his friend as the two watched the battle unfold, the rest of Pogtopia fighting against Manberg and its allies.

When he heard Technoblade’s breaths slowing, Quackity panicked. “Techno, Techno, please, stay awake-“

Quackity was cut off by his sobs, his body shaking from them as he tightly gripped one of Technoblade’s hands with his own. Laying on the ground, Technoblade was too weak to move his head, staring out into the battlefield as he began talking.

“It’s the Trojans, Quackity. We’re Patroclus and Achilles, and we’re fighting against the Trojans.”

Technoblade was cut off with his sharp cough, Quackity gripping his hand so tight he swore he would break it, not sure what to do, or _if_ he could do anything.

“At least- at least I was able to cut them back a bit, right?”

Technoblade managed to turn and lift his head to look at Quackity, and his eyes seemingly became clearer, temporarily breaking through the glaze of pain they had been reflecting.

Technoblade pulled his arm forward, bringing Quackity down closer to him. Bringing up his other hand to wipe the tears off of Quackity’s face, Technoblade gripped his hand and said,

“Achilles...”

Technoblade’s head fell back to the floor, and the glaze returned to his eyes, although death was to thank for it now.

•••

Quackity found himself mourning.

He enters a mindless state, unable to do anything except hurt.

He lies down for a lot of it.

He stops eating.

He feels like he can become one with Technoblade again, somehow merge their two souls by remaining virtually lifeless in all aspects, except of course, actually being lifeless.

For a time, he wishes he can be lifeless. 

Quackity is mindless, but Technoblade is stateless, stuck in the impasse between life and death.

It’s called respawn, all children are told. 

You’re born with three respawns, all children are taught.

You die, you lose a respawn, all children are lectured.

Lose all three, and you die permanently, all children are warned.

So don’t die.

Technoblade never dies, Quackity once thought.

He still thought it, those first few mindless weeks.

He hears himself asking for Technoblade, thinking that his death was one of his elaborate metaphors, begging those who came to check up on him to explain to Technoblade that he finally understood it, that he just wanted to talk to him.

But Quackity didn’t understand, and Technoblade didn’t come.

He stops thinking Technoblade was still alive shortly after. He’s tired of thinking, anyways.

( Looking back at it, Quackity realized he always thought about his mourning period in present tense. He supposed it was because he never truly stopped mourning in the first place. )

•••

Quackity found himself holding Technoblade’s old cape.

They had taken it off when Technoblade was prepared for respawn, he was told.

( He’s not sure who “They” is. He’s not sure how exactly one is prepared for respawn. He’s not even sure who got him the cape anymore. Everything is still numb with his mindlessness. )

The red color had faded, but the feel of the fabric was still comforting. Quackity thought back to those quiet nights in Pogtopia, the sound of the cape brushing the floor, the feel of its soft material covering him when he awoke.

The memories were much less softer than the fabric, sending waves of mourning through him again.

Clutching the cape as his knees buckled, Quackity found himself crying as he fell to the floor, screaming internally,

_Where have you gone, Patroclus?_

•••

Quackity found himself getting up.

Getting water.

Getting food.

Getting visits from concerned friends.

Getting help.

_Getting angry at Dream for killing Technoblade._

Getting out of the house for walks.

_Getting angry at Dream for facing no fucking consequences for killing his best friend._

Getting to help rebuild L’Manburg.

_Getting angry at Dream for his insatiable need for power, and how him killing Technoblade took out one of the major threats against that battle for power._

Getting angry, angry, angry.

Getting ready to take Dream down.

•••

“You will die if you do this, you know.”

Quackity kept his view on his diamond boots. He had come to Drista in the hopes of obtaining armor, hoping that his joking remark of wanting Yeezy’s covered up the true intentions behind his purchase.

It hadn’t.

So, daring to make eye contact, Quackity looked up to Drista.

“How do you know?”

“That you’ll die, or what you’re doing that’ll get you killed?”

“Both.”

“You haven’t hid your anger for my brother very well. And of course, he hasn’t hid his skill with a weapon just as much.”

Quackity scoffed at the remark. “At least I’m dying for something important.”

“So you know that avenging Technoblade, that fighting Dream will kill you?”

Quackity could feel his anger burning his eyes.

And a small splash of resignation calming the fire.

“I do.”

•••

Quackity found himself understanding Technoblade’s story.

Technoblade was Patroclus, dying in his efforts to protect Pogtopia and defeat Manberg.

Dream was Hector, killing Technoblade to protect the symbol of Manberg, the roots of its corrupt history not quite cut off at the root after the war, and quickly sprouting up to the care of the masked man.

Quackity was Achilles, tied to his friend as much as his friend was tied to him, the two still united in their common cause, and their soon-to-be common death.

For Quackity was destined to die avenging his best friend.

•••

Quackity found himself with an arrow in his side, the spear Dream used to kill Technoblade finding a new home in the body of its former owner.

Dream had died long ago, the spear stabbing him through the throat and taking him to the impasse much sooner than his arrow was taking Quackity.

Quackity found himself lying on the floor again as he slowly bled out, his last conscious thought being,

_Have I finally found you, Patroclus?_

•••

Quackity found Technoblade in the impasse.

“Nice to see you again, Patroclus.”

“If the two were real, I’m sure Patroclus would’ve told Achilles this; you are a self-sacrificial dumbass.”

“Only for my best friend, I am.”

A grunt from Technoblade. It seemed the friendlier of the man’s habits hadn’t changed in death. “Well, I hope it was worth avenging me.”

Technoblade grabbed Quackity’s hand as he turned to face forward, beginning to lead him down, although Quackity couldn’t exactly tell where. The impasse was spaceless yet limitless, empty yet full.

“Where are we going?”

Technoblade continued walking, although he turned his head slightly as he said, “Out of here.”

Suddenly, Technoblade’s grip disappeared, and Quackity found himself being surrounded by a bright white light. Closing his eyes tightly, the last thing Quackity heard before respawning was,

“Welcome home, Achilles.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading all the way until the end!!! make sure comment some constructive criticism, or something you liked! have a great rest of your day :D


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